Mozilla’s Firefox OS adventure starts tomorrow with the $90 ZTE Open

Mozilla plans to launch its first phone, the ZTE Open, in Spain tomorrow, touching off what is sure to be an interesting foray into the world of mobile phones.

Available on Telefónica’s Movistar network, the ZTE Open is in many ways the model entry-level phone: The tiny device comes with a 3.5-inch display, 512 MBs of storage, and a 3.2-megapixel camera. So, no — it’s not a showstopper.

Still, the device is hugely important to Mozilla’s ambition to make Firefox OS emerging markets’ device of choice. But will it work? Probably Mozilla’s biggest disadvantage is that it’s very late to the smartphone race, something that’s going to make its experiment a bit of a struggle.